Migrate allows you to bring content into your new Drupal site from a variety of data sources including past versions of Drupal. In this session we will
talk about why you should consider using Migrate over other methods such as upgrading Drupal, using feeds, node export, copy and paste, etc. We will look at the new Migrate UI, what data sources can be imported, and how to create custom migration classes that can be used to bring in content from legacy content management systems.

Your newest creation is finished and just before you are ready for big presentation somebody mentioned that you should load test your site. You check options and find that they are not very budget friendly.
In this session I will show you how to load test your site using Apache jMeter and Amazon AWS for just a few bucks.

[Not really sure if this is a "session" as opposed to some other kind of activity, but…]

Collaborative work time to get started (or finished) on porting a module to D8.

If you've got a D7 (or earlier) module that you'd like to move to D8 this is a great place to dig into the work. [Mention relevant sessions here – assuming there will be at least one…] We'll start with a brief review of porting strategy and some of the big changes between D7 and D8 and then dig into the work.

Has a client ever asked you to make the site work with a 3rd party service's API and you couldn't find a useful Drupal module? Or has a mobile app developer ask you to make parts of the site RESTful? Nowadays, with Drupal moving away from a simple CMS/Framework role into a more SAAS-like (Software As A Service) approach, REST is the protocol of choice and a basic understanding of the standards/workflow will gain importance in time as a Drupal developer.

Modules in Drupal are meant to interact with, extend, or alter the behavior of Drupal Core or other modules. In Drupal 7 and previous versions of Drupal, the basic mechanism for doing this was implementing a hook: writing a function that provides information or alters behavior in a controlled way. Drupal 8 still has some hooks, but many interactions and alterations that in previous versions of Drupal would be accomplished by implementing hooks have been replaced by a plugin mechanism, which involves making a PHP class to define the desired behavior.